The Holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher and those with him.
Apostle’s Fast.
Romans 2:28-3:18; Matthew 6:31-34; 7:9-11.
Read Romans 2:38-2:18
“For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly…He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart” (2:28-29). These words from St. Paul in today’s reading can easily apply to us Christians as well. Like the Jews St. Paul speaks of, we should not rest on the name of Christian that has been given to us, or on the simple fact of our baptism.
Why do we come to Christ, or to the Church? For healing – the Church is a hospital.
But we need to remember that we’re not healed just by being present in the church building, we need to engage in the therapeutic program the Church prescribes for us.
If we’re sick, we’re not healed just by going to the hospital building and being there. We have to approach the physician, be diagnosed, and then we have to engage in the program of healing that’s given to us. If we don’t do what was prescribed to us, we don’t get better. For example, if we have high cholesterol and our doctor tells us to eat a healthy diet and exercise for a specific amount of time – and we don’t do this, we can’t expect to become healthy.
Likewise, St. Basil the Great tells us, “If we prefer a life of pleasure to the life of obedience to the commandments, how can we expect a life of blessedness, fellowship with the saints and the delights of the angelic company in the presence of Christ? Such expectations are truly the fantasies of a foolish mind.” (Preface to the Longer Rule)
Today the Church begins the Apostle’s Fast. From today until the Feast of the Holy Apostles (June 29) we enter into the Church’s therapeutic program in a specific way. By eating less and saying ‘No’ to specific foods, we aim to strengthen our will and gain control over our unruly passions. Not only this – but by taking the time and money we save by simple eating and applying them instead to extra time spent in prayer and works of charity, we begin, slowly but surely, to become Christians inwardly as well as outwardly.
As St. John Chrysostom tells us, “Now do not tell me that you do not worship an image of gold, but make clear to me that you also do not do the things demanded of you by gold. For there are different kinds of idolatry. One holds mammon his lord, and another his belly his god, and a third some other modest baneful lust…flee not only covetousness in money, but the same in evil desire, and in clothing and in food and everything else.” (Homily 6 on Romans)
May God grant us good strength for a fruitful Fast, that like St. Ignatius of Antioch, we “may not merely be called a Christian, but really be found to be one” (Epistle to the Romans, 3)